The Obama administration took steps Thursday to help people avoid being uninsured on Jan. 1 if they can’t get through the troubled Obamacare signup website by Dec. 23.

Health and Human Services officials announced several steps to limit that potential coverage gap. They also asked insurers to voluntarily make the transition to new plans easier, for instance by letting some patients see their current doctors in January, even if that physician isn’t part of the new health plan network.

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the moves will give consumers “more peace of mind and even more confidence that it [insurance] will be there when they want and need it.” She took part briefly in a press call but took no questions.

The administration has faced a crisis as millions of people have learned that their current health insurance plan is being cancelled, while problems with HealthCare.gov and some of the state exchanges have made enrollment difficult. The signup system is better now but still imperfect and it’s an open question whether everyone who needs to sign up this year will be able to do so. Republicans have said more people might lose coverage under Obamacare than gain it, at least in the early months.

Nobody really knows how many people could face a coverage gap Jan. 1. There’s no central registry of plan cancellations or database of how many have found new insurance, or whether they love or hate the new options. But President Barack Obama’s promise that Americans can keep their health plans if they like them has been politically costly, and was named PolitiFact’s “Lie of the Year” today.

With the Dec. 23 deadline looming and enrollment lagging according to the figures made public so far, HHS outlined steps to make the clock tick a little more slowly. HHS also asked insurers to be flexible in January, letting patients, particularly with acute conditions, see their current doctor and refill prescriptions, even if the doctor is out of network or the drug is not on the preferred list or formulary.

Insurers reacted warily to the latest round of 11th hour changes, which the trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans said could “exacerbate the challenges associated with helping consumers through the enrollment process.”

AHIP CEO Karen Ignagni pledged that health plans would do what they could to avert any coverage gap.

“Health plans will continue to do everything they can to protect consumers from potential coverage disruptions caused by the ongoing technical problems with HealthCare.gov,” she said in a statement.

People enrolled in temporary high-risk pools will have an extra month to sign up for new coverage because of early enrollment struggles in Obamacare nationwide, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced. The federal Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan, or PCIP, was to sunset at the end of the year. Those plans have about 86,000 people in them, down from an earlier 135,000 enrollment.

The announced changes set off a fresh round of Republican recriminations.